Is there an Equal Representation of Gender in Politics

The roles of women in the twenty-first century differs a lot from that of the past centuries. They have gone from being just wives whose main goals were to clean the house and cook for their husbands when they get off work, they have gone from being mothers who were to clean diapers and take care of children, they have evolved to the breadwinners of the family. They went from being not able to vote to being the one in power. They graduated in their lives and started to think independently and participate equally in outside world along with the men. However, there are still a lot of barriers that women have not been able to break down. Among the barriers for women to break down is the struggle for gender inequality in politics all around the world. In this line of work, females have been perceived as the weaker race and have been said to be incapable of making the right decisions regarding issues that has to do with politics.

Women have been denied the chance to air their political views. Aristotle said “ if liberty and equality,as it is thought by some are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost”. This means that there is no real equality until all individuals are not only involved in government but have the same say in legitations. According to research, record has shown that there are only twenty four women who have been elected to the position of head of state. Gender inequality is probably the most common form of discrimination, due to the fact that it exists in different parts of the occupational field most especially in politics. These days women have come a long way to achieve equality but as feminists and modern women say, women have to work twice as hard to get half of the respect that men get in their careers. In most political parties , women have been insufficiently represented due to the popular stereotypes about female behaviour for example, the popular opinion that females are the weaker gender.

In congressional Enactment of Race-Gender, Mary Hawkesworth wrote “ female legislators were explicitly excluded from congressional committee press conference and remained unrecognized for speaking by their male colleagues and where female members of congress employed techniques akin to “grovelling” to influence their male peers” ( page 358-359). This indicates that there is a privilege that men have that women would need to take into consideration when making contributions to their political parties. The political aspect f a state should reflect the gender makeup of the state’s society. However, it seems there are still less women in political positions. Political parties should be made to open ub about the diversity of their candidates to show the ratio between their male and female members. The format of elections which is chosen by the political party’s list allows men to be placed at the very top since they believe the males to be more popular among the people of the state. Gender issues and inequality has been biased with women being the unfavourable group in the society. Different organizations have been formed in the society which denies women the rights and privileges freely given to men because the society favours males. Men still believe that women should not be in places of power or have the power to make decisions and give out orders because they believe that they are the stronger gender ,therefore, they should be in charge.

However, given that the exclusion of women from politics has and is still one of the important keys to the cultural definition of gender of a state, politics should be the first platform or institution to get rid of any form of gender inequality among the people of the institution. Gender equality is one of the biggest forms of discrimination faced today that human beings are trying to cope with, if this issue can be resolved it could open the gates to a better policy making economy.

Cite this page